The National Survey for Wales (NSW) is commissioned by the Welsh Government, Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales, and the Arts Council of Wales. It is used in decision-making by those organisations and other public-sector bodies across Wales.

The survey covers a broad range of topics including education, exercise, health, social care, use of the internet, community cohesion, wellbeing, employment, and finances. The topics change regularly in order to keep up with changing needs for information. Some topics are only included periodically, where the results are slow-changing; and some topics are only asked of a random subsample of respondents, which allows more topics to be included.

The survey sample is adults aged 16+ living in private households. The survey does not cover people living in communal establishments (e.g. care homes, residential youth offender homes, hostels, and student halls). A range of demographic questions is included, to allow for detailed cross-analysis of the results.

Fieldwork runs continuously, with topics updated each April. Each year’s data (from April to the following March) is deposited around six months later at the UK Data Archive so that the data is widely accessible for research purposes. The data collected is also linked with other datasets via the SAIL Databank (excluding any respondents who have asked for their data to not be linked). Respondents are able to opt out of having their results linked if they wish.

From 2016-17 onwards, the National Survey for Wales replaced the Welsh Health Survey by incorporating questions on health conditions, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking.